Monday, January 11, 2016

Sippy Cups-Are You a Straw Cup?

In my youth, I did some babysitting. In the course of babysitting at one particular mother's house, I was unloading the dishwasher (because I was the go-above-and-beyond type *pats self on back*). I went to put away a sippy cup and a mountain of brightly colored, different shaped cups cascaded out of the cabinet. After several tries at a better way of stacking, I backed across the room, threw the last cup in there, and let loose a clever Rube Goldberg machine to slam the cabinet door closed. Not quite, but I did toss the cup in and slam the door as quickly as possible and mentally apologized for the mess it was going to make later. After the mental apology, I kind of judged those cups and that disorganization. Oh the wisdom of a teenage babysitter! "I couldn't handle that sort of cup chaos falling all the time! I'd do something about it!"

What precisely would I have done? Because on the other side of that cabinet, I would LOVE to know what my grand plan was. Suffice it to say, sippy cups are slowly taking over my house. I still can't handle the chaos and the constant falling out of cabinets, but am at a loss to both fix it and to stem the never ending tide of new sippy cups entering the house. It's like that scene in Harry Potter, where the goblets keep multiplying in Bellatrix's vault each time they touch one, except there is never a cool dragon ride, just lots of cups.

We started with the basic pink, two handled, training cup. It molded like nothing I've ever seen. I could not keep it clean. It would mold in little crevices that I had to use special brushes to get to and even the sanitize cycle on the washer couldn't cut through the fungus. I still have it. Why? I don't know. Then we went through a trial period of several different types of handled sippy cups because she didn't want to drink out of anything. I have those cups too. Still. Languishing in the cabinet. Now we are past the handled cups and into the very slick-sided plastic ones. Soon we will move from that kind that has a spout to the straw kind. All these cups will take up space in my cabinet theoretically for the next 15 years depending on the age differences of our future hypothetical children. Well that's a depressing thought.

Here's a more fun thought. In the course of thinking about all these sippy cups, I have decided that sippy cups could be a personality test, each one has distinctive characteristics.

The Leaker: You are so full of life and joy, so full in fact you can't keep that joy in. It just spills out of you. Joy everywhere. This means that people either love you or hate you. Some people just rub that joy on their face and through their hair like it's a deep conditioner. Other people look at you and say "you are a hot mess of emotions" and put you in the back of the proverbial cabinet.

The Handled Cup: Who can use a cup? You can! You can! Cup! Cup! Cup! You are a never tiring cheerleader. You cheer, you help, you eeeeease people out of the old into the new. You meet people at their level and take them to a new one. But then they leave. And you're okay. Okay-ish. You just want to be LOVED okay??? You are a freakin' Giving Tree of love and devotion and help and then people just move on to newer flashier cups leaving you to pick up and...wait...is that a new baby? Who can use a cup? You can! You can!

The No-Handled Cup: Yep, don't mean to brag, but you have arrived. Look at all these freshmen. You're big man on campus. You know what's what and you don't mind to shove a few smaller people out of the way to get it. You just got your first credit card and you are using it! Why have one outfit when you can have every color, every Disney character, and even monogrammed. Go big or go home.

The Perfect Cup: You are part of a couple. It's the two of you all the time. When you go to sleep, you're clutched in their arms. When they wake up, you are the first thing they want. You go everywhere together. Everywhere! Do NOT possibly forget to take you somewhere! Fury will rain down upon your head! Other people might say this is unhealthy, but you don't care. You're world is completely taken up by your one person, the rest fades to black...until a new cup comes to the cabinet. Dun dun dun!

Straw Cup: There are a lot of words that could describe you, we'll call you a mother lovin' bad bottom. Oh yeah. You are a world traveler-the park, church, the children's museum, what what! You are independent. You love new things and aren't afraid to give them a try. Coconut juice anyone? The world is your oyster and you are going to put your sticky hands on all of it!

The Glass: You are the black tie, pearl draped, only eat things with five adjectives person. You are delicate. You are what everyone aspires to be. No one can touch you. Look down to those lower shelves and judge all the plastic flotsam you see! Bwhaha!

3 comments:

1 nice Camelbak water bottle per kid, 1 soft spout sippy cup for training purposes and a stack of take and toss has simplified my life so much. We do at least one load of dishes every day. We do not need 17 sippy cups.

Me!

About Me

This is me: my hubby, my adorable baby girl, my new role as a stay-at-home mom. It's all the stuff that matters in my life, with a healthy dose of soapbox issues because everyone in world needs to hear those!